Split Tuning

Walter Thut · Post by **Walter Thut** » 30 Mar 2003 2:57 am

I'm sur somebody can help me out there? Last Week i've been talking to Don Heron ( BR 5 49) and asked him about his tunings . On one Neck he has a E 13 and on the top Neck a D Split tuning the same like Hank Snow Steelguitarist. My Question: What are the intevals and how is it used?

Any help is appreciated
Walter

Kerry Wood · Post by **Kerry Wood** » 30 Mar 2003 2:59 pm

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/001281.html

Walter, this thread may be of some help. Make sure to read both pages.

Kerry

John Kavanagh · Post by **John Kavanagh** » 31 Mar 2003 5:50 am

What some people would call a "split tuning"
at the end of that thread others would call an F13. It's a halftone higher than a common E13 tuning: EBdf#eg#c#'e'.

A bit of theory: the 13th is the same note as the 6th(c# in E), and any tuning that contains a 6th and a 7th(d) can be called a 13th tuning, though strictly speaking a full E13 chord has a 9th (f#) and an 11th (a); the 11th is usually left out. It's a big honkin' dominant chord.

It's a split tuning when you think of it as one chord on the bottom and a different chord on the top, using the lower strings for 7th chords, for instance, and the top 4 for 6th sounds.

I've messed around a bit with a split A6/C6 tuning: Ac#ef#gace (good for blues and rock). You could stretch things a bit and call this an A13#9, but it's easier to say "A6 on the bottom, C6 on the top", and that's the way it tends to feel too, though of course there's also an A7 in there. [This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 31 March 2003 at 05:54 AM.]

Jeff Au Hoy · Post by **Jeff Au Hoy** » 31 Mar 2003 6:10 am

It's a split tuning when you think of it as one chord on the bottom and a different chord on the top...

Hey, that's a pretty neat idea John... sort of relates to the "B11th" tuning, which I tend to think of as really being an A6/B9.

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 31 Mar 2003 6:28 am

I noticed that on the other steel site out there, the Hawaiian players look at a tuning for how many different chords you can see on the face of the open tuning. Since I noticed that, I do the same. Like what Mikey from the big island once said about C#m tuning working better if you look at it as E6.

Walter Thut · Post by **Walter Thut** » 2 Apr 2003 8:28 am

Thanks a lot for your help, you can close this one.